


Pictures On A Shelf

by anotherthief



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-25 00:52:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherthief/pseuds/anotherthief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's their third or fourth date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pictures On A Shelf

The first time Lizzie sees a picture of his parents she's standing barefoot in his kitchen with a glass of wine. It's their third or fourth date. (Depending on whether Chinese take out and making out in the copy room counts as a date or not. Darcy says it doesn't, but Lizzie's had worse first dates so she's not so sure.)

He's washing dishes but refuses to let her help so she's being nosey while he pretends he's not watching her out of the corner of his eye. There are bookshelves throughout his house and she's made a habit of checking most of them out. The ones in the living room and foyer just have books. But a few pictures share the space here with a couple of French cookbooks and one of Rachael Ray's 30-minute meal books (which she'll definitely be teasing him for later). There's a shot of him and Gigi at his high school graduation (he has on a bow tie, she has braces). In another he’s with Fitz and Bing in what must have been somebody's college apartment judging by the tower of beer cans on the table behind them. A few more have Gigi at different ages and one includes some friends she doesn't know.

Then she sees it. She's never seen them before but the tell tale features are on their faces. It's a vacation photo judging by the Hawaiian shirts and the beach behind them. Darcy's mom is standing tucked under his dad's arm, hugging up his side. She's smiling but looking off at something out of frame, clearly she didn't know the picture was being taken. Darcy Sr. is smirking at the camera and it's just so familiar because she's seen his son wear the same look so many times before.

She stops hearing the clink of pots and pans but doesn't turn around. "They look like they were happy."

She can feel him walking up behind her, his hands ghost up the sides of her arms before resting on her shoulders.

"They were. They were always smiling, joking around."

He gently squeezes her shoulders. She leans back into him, takes a sip of her wine. "When was this taken?"

"That last summer. We used to go down to the beach house the last couple of weeks of July."

She thinks he might say more but he only sighs. There's sadness in his voice but only just. It's been several years now. But she knows it can't be easy. So when he sighs again she turns around into him, cranes her neck back to look at him (he's just so tall, sheez). She flashes him what she hopes is a comforting smile. "Want to go start the movie?"

She's learning more about him every day, but his story comes like this, a piece here and there.

Darcy smiles back and slips a hand into her free one. Eventually she knows she'll get all of them, but for tonight Lizzie lets him lead her into the living room.

She'll tease him about Rachael Ray tomorrow.


End file.
